Introduction and background
Developing countries especially African countries depend on agriculture, forests products and water and energy resources for their livelihoods (Sunderlin et al., 2005). However, the provision of these services by the natural environment is under threat due to anthropogenic factors, economic and population growth, growing middle class, increased demand for water, energy and food resources and climate change and variability (see Rasul and Sharma, 2016; Al-Saidi et al., 2017; De Amorim et al., 2018a, De Amorim et al., 2018b). This has further increased demand for natural resources and promoted competition among forests, water, food and energy (de Andrade et al., 2017; De Amorim et al., 2018a, De Amorim et al., 2018b). The increasing scarcity of natural resources and competition among food, water, energy and forest coupled with the ever-growing population is therefore a big threat to natural ecosystems leading to intensifying climate, land use and environmental changes caused by increases in greenhouse gas emissions (see Jalilov et al., 2015; Ozturk, 2015).
An integrated approach therefore needs to be given towards forest conservation, energy, water and food security within a broader context of climate change and variability in order to ensure a secure and sustainable future for all (Gulati et al., 2013). The water-food-energy-forest (WFEF) nexus within context of climate change is one such critical concept to assess the interrelated and complex socio-ecological nature of the global resource systems on which humans depend to sustain the economic, social, political and environmental goals. The nexus components cannot therefore be discussed independently hence the need for integrated approach (de Andrade et al., 2020). The nexus presents a conceptual approach for understanding and systematically analyzing the interaction between human activities and the environment towards a more coordinated management and use of natural resources across sectors. It can therefore help in identifying, managing tradeoffs and building synergies while allowing for more integrated cost-effective planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation, and evidence-based decision making (FAO, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 2014; Mahlknecht et al., 2020).
The Nexus identifies interlinkages, tradeoffs and synergies between the components that were previously considered separately namely water, food, energy and forest. For instance, water supports livelihoods through provision of drinking water, food production, irrigated agriculture and fisheries. The same water is used for cooling in the extractive industry, production of energy through hydropower generation and biofuel production as well as nuclear and geothermal power plants (Mahlknecht et al., 2020). Moreover, energy consumption entails desalination, wastewater treatment, pumping water for food and irrigated agriculture. This implies the sectors cannot be treated separately. At the global level, 70% of water use is mainly on food production (FAO and Food, 2017a cited in Mahlknecht et al., 2020) while primary energy production and power generation account for about 10% of water extraction (IEA, International Energy Agency. World energy outlook, 2016). On the other hand, production of food and its supply chain account for 30% of energy use while about 8% of energy use is on withdrawals, transportation and sewerage treatment (see FAO, Food Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 2011; UNU, United Nations University, 2014). In addition, the global forest cover is estimated to be about 30.6% (FAO and Food, 2018). Forests provide the main source of energy (i.e. fuel wood) relied on by rural households. Forests also provide vital ecosystem services that are critical in bolstering livelihoods (medicines and food through fruits and traditional vegetables), providing clean air (carbon sequestration) and water, conserving biodiversity and responding to climate change. Moreover, a large part of the world's drinking water also comes from forested areas.
However, the world's population is projected to be 10 billion people by 2050 up from about 8 billion people today. The demand for food is expected to grow by about 50% (FAO and Food, 2018). This implies the need to change the ways in which humankind use productive land resources particularly in developing countries where the World's 800 million poor and hungry people are concentrated. The continued conversion of forest land to agriculture not only threatens forest adjacent communities but diminishes variety of life on our planet especially in the East African region where over 80% of the population live in rural areas and relies on forest for their livelihood. As the population grows, and the continued land use changes in developing world, there may be loss of valuable habitat, land degradation, soil erosion, reduction in clean water and emission of greenhouse gases. The main challenge therefore, is to increase agricultural production and improve food security and access to water and other sources of energy without encroaching into forest, thus responding to the effects of climate change.
An understanding of the interaction among water, food, energy and forest resources across time and space within the context of climate change and variability can thus enhance resource security
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